Iowa-UConn ladies’s Remaining 4 match was most-watched hoops recreation in ESPN historical past; 14.2M avg. viewers

Iowa’s 71-69 victory over UConn on the ladies’s Remaining 4 on Friday evening averaged 14.2 million viewers on ESPN, making it the most-viewed ladies’s basketball recreation on file and the biggest viewers for an ESPN basketball broadcast

BRISTOL, Conn. — BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) — Iowa’s 71-69 victory over UConn on the ladies’s Remaining 4 on Friday evening averaged 14.2 million viewers on ESPN, making it the most-viewed ladies’s basketball recreation on file and the biggest viewers for an ESPN basketball broadcast.

The earlier ladies’s hoops mark was 12.3 million for final Monday’s Iowa-LSU recreation within the Elite Eight. Sport 7 of the 2018 Jap Convention finals between Cleveland and Boston was ESPN’s most-watched basketball recreation at 13.51 million.

That additionally makes it one of many most-viewed video games in any sport apart from faculty and the NFL over the previous couple years. Final 12 months’s NCAA males’s title recreation between San Diego State and UConn averaged 14.79 million.

The Hawkeyes recreation, which noticed the viewers peak at 17 million, will doubtless go down as one of many prime 50 primetime telecasts of 2024. It could have completed thirty second on final 12 months’s checklist.

It is usually ESPN’s second-highest viewers for a non-football broadcast. The US-Portugal match throughout group play within the 2014 males’s World Cup averaged 18.22 million.

The final NBA recreation to attract no less than 14 million was Golden State’s title-clinching victory over Boston in Sport 6 of the 2022 NBA Finals (14.22 million).

Clark’s 5 March Insanity video games on ESPN and ABC have averaged 8.3 million. Iowa will face South Carolina for the nationwide championship Sunday afternoon on ABC.

South Carolina’s 78-59 victory over North Carolina State averaged 7.1 million viewers, making it the third most-watched ladies’s nationwide semifinal since information began being stored in 1992.

The earlier file for the most-viewed semifinal was Stanford vs. Virginia on CBS in 1992 (8.1 million).

Friday’s two video games averaged 10.8 million viewers, a 138% improve over final 12 months.

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AP March Insanity bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket/ and protection: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness